Rodger Saffold will “definitely” hit the market on Tuesday

Posted by Josh Alper on March 7, 2014, 1:31 PM EST

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Talks between the Rams and impending free agent tackle Rodger Saffold were expected to pick up this week and the two sides spoke, but it doesn’t sound like they laid the groundwork for an extension of Saffold’s stay in St. Louis.

Saffold’s agent Alan Herman told Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his client “definitely will be out in the free-agent market” when it opens up on Tuesday. Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff agreed that Saffold was likely to “peek behind the curtain” now that free agency is right around the corner, but said he plans to keep trying to bring Saffold back.

“My hope is that’s not case. But Rodger has good representatives. They do a good job. We have a good relationship with them. If there’s a deal that comes together, I know we’ll figure it out,” Demoff said. “If there’s not, then he’ll go to free agency and by no means is that the end of this conversation. Hopefully, once it’s there we’ll have an opportunity to figure it out and keep him as a Ram.”

Thomas writes that “it’s clear” the Rams would like to re-sign Saffold and play him at guard, something that furthers the likelihood that he’ll hit the open market. Guards make less than tackles and Saffold has played both tackle spots during his career, which makes it easy to understand why he’d like to sell himself at that position before making any final decisions.

That one Viking fan with 4 different user names sure knows how to flood threads.

I thought Saffold wanted to playing at tackle or did I read that wrong during the season? Rams are an excellent place to pick up a franchise LT and stud skill player in round 1 thanks to Redskins.

schmitty2 says:Mar 7, 2014 3:03 PM

Saffold won’t be back. He was very upset when he was moved from LT when they signed Jake Long. He wants to play tackle and be paid as such but the problem is he is better suited as a guard and he has injury issues. Some team will overpay mark my words.

Like to keep him, but he won’t get a pie-in-the-sky contract from the Rams. They know him and they know exactly what he’s worth. Saffold-best of luck wherever you land, but you need to realize you aren’t the second coming of Orlando Pace.